


Before You Go

by Duskfall



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Sath, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Until Dawn is nothing but pain, angst with elements of fluff, mostly Sam/Beth with background Matt/Hannah, why did i do this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10382094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duskfall/pseuds/Duskfall
Summary: Sam Giddings and Beth Washington knew from a young age that the world was a messed up place. There was no kindness in a reality that only let you know what you had when you lost it; that gave you everything you ever wanted only to rip it all away.What they didn't know was just how soon it would come to destroy all they held dear.—[Soulmate AU: The last words you ever hear your soulmate say are written on your wrist.]





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've risen from the dead yet again! Yes, I'm still working on Coming Home. No, I don't know when the next chapter will be out. Writer's block is a bitch. In the meantime, have another one-shot involving Washington girls and death, this time with Sath (plus a tiny bit of Matt/Hannah, because I just couldn't resist). AU details are in the description, and as usual, feedback is always appreciated!

 

_You jerks._

Since the day she was born, those two little words had been imprinted on the soft skin of Sam's wrist in swirling black ink. They were the first words she'd learned to read, since they were so constant in her life, and for the first few years after that she was puzzled by their meaning. Not wanting to burden her with the truth at a young age, her parents had managed to steer away from the topic for nearly a decade until they finally gave in.

After learning the truth, Sam was afraid. Though simple enough, the wording of the phrase seemed too much so – they were the anger-driven, immature words of a kid or a teenager, not someone who lived a long life and died peacefully in their sleep. Sam knew the stories of people who lost their soulmates early in life, and she never wanted to look into a mirror and see the hollow, broken eyes of someone so heartbreakingly alone. Someone who lost their whole world before they truly got the chance to live.

In time, all Sam could hope for was that she died young instead of the one she loved.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, Beth felt like living with a twin was only living half a life.

As kids, she and Hannah shared everything, did everything together, and each seemed incomplete without the other. The only thing – the one and only thing Beth ever resented her sister for was the word on her wrist.

 _Hannah._ Hannah, of all things. The last thing the girl she loved (for Beth was quite sure it would be a girl, for as long as she could remember) would ever say near her would be her sister's name, and for someone with a deeply repressed inferiority complex the size of Mount Washington, that stung more than Beth would ever let on.

She adored her twin from day one, and whenever Hannah got the solo in a ballet recital or a national trophy in tennis or a spot as junior valedictorian, Beth cheered the loudest and smiled the brightest for her kind, beautiful, talented older sister. But the tattoo on her wrist still seemed to burn, mocking that she'd never live up to perfect Hannah, even with the person who was supposed to be hers alone.

Beth began to hide the ink with heavy makeup every day, and pushed on as she always had.

 

* * *

 

Sam was fourteen when she met the Washingtons in their freshmen year of high school.

It was around a week before she realized that the girl who sat next to her in English and her lab partner in Biology were two different people, but she laughed it off with the charismatic twin girls as they grew closer and began to eat lunch and study together. It became easier when Hannah began wearing glasses and Beth cut her hair in a different style halfway through the year, and Sam teased that it was about time they gave people some way to tell them apart.

The three of them were inseparable before long. Hannah was her best friend; the adorably quirky little sister she never had. Beth . . .

Sam never quite knew what Beth was to her. Only that she was clever and funny and caring under a thick layer of sarcasm, that her nose scrunched in the cutest way when she made a certain face, that her eyes lightened to an almost honey gold in the sunlight, that one of her rare, genuine smiles made Sam willing to tear the world down for her if only to see it for a moment.

That Beth Washington made her heart feel like it was closer to home than ever before, and that she used the word _jerk_ far too often for Sam to sleep easily at night.

 

* * *

 

It was another two years before anything came of it.

Hannah and Beth's sixteenth birthday party was the talk of the town for months both before and after the event, and rightfully so. The Washingtons were infamous at the local high schools for throwing the largest, most epic, and sometimes questionably legal (usually in Josh's case) soirées of the area in typical rich kid fashion.

They had hired a local band to play live music through the night, and hundreds of teenagers danced under the glow of a full moon and thousands of fairy lights twinkling in the trees. Hannah's joyful giggles rang out loud and clear as she was twirled in the air by a beaming Matt Taylor, their school's football captain and number two most-swooned-after, but neither Sam nor Beth missed the longing glances she threw towards one Michael Munroe.

"Han looks like she's enjoying herself," Sam commented as she slid in next to Beth. The second Washington had been watching from the edges of the dance floor, twirling an empty punch glass as the party unfolded around her. She couldn't resist a smile as she turned to the girl beside her, though, and _holy shit_. Sam had never been this dolled-up before, and damn, the blonde could rock a party dress.

"Not as much as she would if a certain someone asked her to dance," Beth teased, and both girls snickered.

Sam tilted her head inquisitively. "What about you? It's your party too, and here you are, all alone and without anyone to pine after . . ." Her lips turned up in a soft smile, and she held out one hand to playfully wiggle her fingers at Beth. "Come on, birthday girl. Let's dance."

Beth grinned, her heart in her throat. Her fingers slipped between Sam's, and they twined together with a soft squeeze that sent a rush of warmth through her. "Whatever you say, Gids. Let's dance."

Later that night, Beth kissed Sam Giddings for the first time under the soft glow of moonlight and fading notes of a love song, to the surprised cheers of half the school. From Matt's arms, Hannah beamed brightest of all.

 

* * *

 

Even then, it took time before Sam saw the writing on Beth's wrist. She knew that her girlfriend must have a good reason for hiding it all the time, and she never pressed her about it. What they had was strong and deep and beautiful; trust and patience were a given for them.

The first time Beth showed her was on a bright winter morning, when they woke up wrapped around each other in Beth's unreasonably large bed at the Washington mansion. Morning sunlight crept in through the windows to cast a golden glow over the room. The two girls had been lying together among the sheets – their discarded clothes from the night before in Sam's peripheral vision as her girlfriend softly twirled a long lock of blond hair around her finger – when Beth finally let go and sat up. Sam followed suit, wondering if something was wrong until she saw the other girl grab a tissue from the side of the bed and begin to rub at her wrist. It was slightly red as she held it out towards Sam a few moments later, her eyes more sad and wary than before.

"It's time you knew," she said softly with a shrug of one bare shoulder.

Sam immediately knew why she had hidden her mark from the world, and her heart ached for the girl beside her, who had shrunk behind the familiar mask of indifference she relied on when feeling particularly inadequate. "Oh, Beth," Sam breathed, and gently ran her fingers over the delicately inked letters of her best friend's name.

The rest of the morning was spent by Sam showing the youngest Washington how loved she truly was, and as Sam worshipped every part of her with warm, genuine, unyielding adoration, her sister's name faded entirely from Beth's mind.

 

* * *

 

On the night of February 2nd, 2014, Beth wasn't thinking of wrists or tattoos or soulmates as she screamed at her friends in a rush of anger, running out into the woods after her twin without so much as a glance back.

She wasn't thinking of the girl she left behind in the lodge entryway, who had been desperately calling her sister's name into the night.

As the crack of a branch echoed in Beth's ear and she began the freefall into open air, Hannah's hand slipping from the very wrist she had forgotten, Beth's mind finally switched to Sam, and she knew what she was leaving behind. The last thought to cross her mind before she slipped into darkness was of golden hair and soft lips, and a single phrase.

_Sorry, Sam._

 

* * *

 

Even bathed in the warmth of firelight inside the lodge, Sam felt like her veins had turned to ice. It had been hours since the Washington girls had disappeared, and there had been a cacophony of screaming and fighting ever since Josh and Chris woke up, but she hadn't moved an inch from the couch she'd collapsed into, hugging herself tightly and staring blankly into the fire.

Eventually the scene behind her quieted down, and she heard Josh exhale a shaky breath. "Look, I'm tired and hungover, and I can't deal with you dicks at the moment. They'll be back soon, and you are going to fucking _beg_ Hannah to forgive you – "

"They aren't coming back."

Everyone fell quiet and turned to Sam in sync. "It's just some snow, Sam. They're fine, I know they are," Jess piped up with very false sounding confidence, and Josh looked half-ready to slap her at the word 'just.'

Sam shook her head, tears beginning to form, and roughly shoved up the sleeve of her sweater, holding her wrist out for all to see the words there. She stared defiantly out at the rest of the group, daring them to say anything, but a deadly silence had fallen over the lodge once again.

After a few moments, without a word, Matt also stepped forward with one sleeve rolled up, and they could clearly see the last words Hannah spoke before fleeing etched into his skin. Both girls were accounted for.

Both girls were gone.

As the world crumbled around her, Sam felt her heart shatter for the people she had loved most in the world. Hannah and Beth Washington were dead or dying, lost to the night and the snow and the mountain.

At the age of eighteen, Sam lost her soulmate.


End file.
